July 10, 2013

The Morning Wrap

On Trial: The government's campaign to punish Wall Street over risky investments sold before the financial crisis will culminate in an unlikely way - with the civil trial of a 34-year-old Frenchman, Fabrice P. Tourre, The New York Times reports.

Two-Second Advantage: New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman is investigating the regular release of a potentially market-moving economic survey two seconds early to deep-pocketed traders. By contrast, the Securities and Exchange Commission has not publicly voiced concern about these types of early releases, the Washington Post reports.

No Net: Florida may have just accidentally made all computers and smartphones illegal, CNN reports. The state recently passed a bill to crack down on gambling in Internet cafes, but a new lawsuit alleges the wording on the bill is so broad that it could be interpreted as a ban on any device connected to the Internet.

Legal Assistance: China's securities watchdog said it is ready to turn over audit documents of a Chinese company listed in the United States to U.S. regulators, signaling a second breakthrough in a two-year international dispute over accounting scandals, Reuters reports.

Train Derailment: Quebec police are pursuing a painstaking, wide-ranging criminal investigation of the inferno ignited by the derailment of a runaway oil train that killed at least 15 people and left dozens missing in the burned-out ruins of a downtown district, the Associated Press reports.

Debt Collection: Banks supervised by the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau now face penalties if they mistreat consumers while collecting debts on loans they extended, the agency said today. The new policy, implemented as part of the agency’s bank supervision, will plug a gap in federal anti-harassment law that generally excluded creditors who collected debt themselves, Bloomberg reports.